Book Markers 02.04.16

Black Lit Read-In

Of course you don’t need an officially designated month to dig the great John Edgar Wideman’s tales of the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, to cite one example, but an officially designated read-in might encourage you to stand up and share them with friends, neighbors, countrymen. Such a one happens on Friday, Feb. 12, at Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor, put together with the help of the John Jermain Memorial Library. 

Readers have been invited to read fiction or nonfiction passages from black writers — poetry, too — starting at 5 p.m. Readers have also been asked to give someone at the venerable bookshop a heads-up call that they’ll be doing so.

Poetry at the Parrish

Maybe this is the year to goose dull February with a writing workshop, and not just any old workshop among a proliferation of workshops, but one in which you tread the airy, well-lit halls of Water Mill’s Parrish Art Museum in search of poetic inspiration.

Jennifer Senft, an editor who teaches English at Suffolk Community College, writes that she will “guide participants through the galleries, introduce a different poetic form each week, and lead the class in congenial feedback and discussion.” The Art of Poetry costs $140 for four sessions, $120 for museum members. It starts on Feb. 26 and continues for the four following Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon.

Just a touch more from Ms. Senft, if you will: “I’ll share published works at the start of each class, we’ll view and discuss a different exhibition each week, write, then workshop. We will read and review free verse as well as structured poetry.” Registration is online or by phone with the museum.